Tuner: Requesting Consultation

On my Para 1640 LDA ltd. It has the stupid series 80 junk that blocks the firing pin. Occasionally in speed shooting I keep getting light strike misfires which I suspect may be due to me shifting my grip slightly to get better access to the mag release button which results in me not pressing the grip safety fully down tight. The gun drops the hammer and the round does not fire. The primer shows a very wimpy imprint. Most of the time, the imprints are normal. This is a very rare thing, but extremely annoying.

FIRST: this dumb gun has some kind of "slide lock" that locks the slide in battery position unless the grip safety is depressed. I have noticed it won't release the slide unless I hold the grip safety tightly.

SECOND: any way to easily fix the grip safety so it depresses the internals better and doesn't require a death grip?

THIRD: any way to easily defeat the series 80 crap? I know on Kimbers you can install a series 70 firing pin and that eliminates the blocking function and their light strike misfires which I suspect are similar in nature to mine.

This gun is an LDA and the internals are more complicated than a Swiss watch, so I am not confident in fixing it. Just wondering if you have any experience with this problem.

Brother, I've seen exactly one Para LDA that my neighbor had for about a week before it went away. Didn't notice the grip safety/battery lockup thing, and don't know what could be done about it, if anything...Not familiar
at all with the LDA Paras.

On the light firing pin strikes...sounds like there's a timing problem with the Series 80 system. The plunger lever isn't lifting the plunger high enough to release the firing pin, and the pin drags on the plunger as it tries to get past it. Take the slide apart and look for signs of hard contact on the plunger, and possibly the firing pin spring.

Check the timing...or the amount of lift on the plunger by measuring the height from the top of the plunger lever to the top of the frame. It should be .070 inch minimum when the pretravel is taken out of the trigger, just as the trigger starts to put pressure on the sear. .075 inch is better.
When the trigger is fully rearward, the distance should be .090 minimum,
and .100 to .110 is better.

The fix is to get a taller plunger lever. Colt numbers them. 1,2,3 and..."N"
I think. I've never seen anything other than a number 1 in a factory Colt...
the shortest.

If the plunger is damaged, you'll need another one. I may have one around here. If I do, it's yours.

Luck!

Tuner

bountyhunter

June 8, 2004, 04:36 PM

I was just looking at the guts of it at lunchtime. It doesn't have a traditional "plunger lever" to lift the FP plunger. It's a flat piece of stamped metal and I am not entirely sure what drives it from underneath..

The other killer about an LDA is that you can not pull the trigger with the slide off or risk damaging the works. It cocks the internal sear (compressing the hammer spring) when you move the slide back to remove the slide stop, so the inner works are "cocked" whenever you dis assemble the gun.

I outsmarted it and removed the recoil spring and rod and put the slide back on (taped it in place of normal battery) then pulled the trigger to release the hammer spring. I then drove out the pin in the MSH and slid it down far enough to flip the grip safety up and get at the insides. Didn't see a single part I recognized as belonging in a 1911. Even the sear spring is a Frankenstein contraption with on leaf clipped to a nub with a small coil spring pushed onto the free end and that spring puts tension onto the saftey detent.

Given my tactical disadvantage, my plan is to reduce the spring load on the leaf that rides against the grip safety to make it easier to compress. I'll see if that gets rid of the light strikes.

Kruzr

June 8, 2004, 08:24 PM

Looking over the Para website, it says the Grip Safety on the LDA also blocks the hammer..........a separate little piece. Sounds like that could be the problem rather than the FP block which is indirectly off the trigger.

The grip safety prevents the rearward travel of the trigger and the slide unless the pistol is gripped firmly with the shooting hand depressing the grip safety. While the function of the LDA grip safety (14) is similar to that on the P-Series pistols it accomplishes the same task by blocking the hammer (17) with the grip safety lever (58) instead of by the trigger bow as in the P-Series .

http://www.paraord.com/images/safety/safety-grip.jpg

From: http://www.paraord.com/pages/safety2.html

BigG

June 9, 2004, 08:59 AM

Para ... stupid Series 80 junk

You put the cart before the horse there.

1911Tuner

June 9, 2004, 09:06 AM

Good picture, Kruzr.

That buzzin' sound that I hear is John Moses in his grave doin' about 30,000 RPMs..:rolleyes:

bountyhunter

June 9, 2004, 12:32 PM

Looking over the Para website, it says the Grip Safety on the LDA also blocks the hammer..........a separate little piece. Sounds like that could be the problem rather than the FP block which is indirectly off the trigger. Yeah, I got a good look at those parts last night. I wonder if the grip safety part that blocks the hammer can "drag" on it if the grip safety is not fully depressed? Something is giving me light strikes on occasion but not often enough to do it when I want to see it happen.

The grip safety activation seems good on mine. It only has to go about half way down before it releases the slide lock.

I cleaned and lubed everything and reduced the sear spring force against the grip safety (it was higher than it needed to be). maybe that will fix it.

I now fully appreciate what a beautiful design the series 70 actually is.

Delmar

June 9, 2004, 12:59 PM

As to "stupid series 80 junk", the only true series 80 part I see is the plunger in the slide. I suppose ya gotta add a whole bunch more parts when you try to incorporate a firing pin safety designed for a sliding trigger to a pivoting trigger.

Only problem I ever had on a series 80 was on my first one, and it was a blessing. Previous owner bought it, fired a box of shells out of it, took it all the way down to clean it, but installed the first lever-what I call the boomerang, backwards. Hammer drops-no boom! Saved me over $100 in the purchase. and took about two minutes to fix.

Wish ya the best on that Para, Bountyhunter. I have heard a lot of people say how much they like the LDA series, and I for one would consider sending it back to Canada or an authorized repair station close by and have them fix it if Tuner's suggestion does not work.

It would make me nervous to buy a firearm I did not know how to take down to the last part, but I guess I'm basically a tinkerer at heart.

bountyhunter

June 9, 2004, 01:18 PM

It would make me nervous to buy a firearm I did not know how to take down to the last part, but I guess I'm basically a tinkerer at heart. Me too. The LDA is the only gun I have that I can't strip down to the nuts. I can even do my Ruger MkII and they are a nightmare.

I've heard horror stories about the LDA's as to getting the springs back in and there is no good reference material available on it. I know that once I finally do it (and I will), there will follow a number of hours of loud swearing to get the parts back in and then many hours of screwing with the gun to lighten the trigger pull and probably make the safety work better.